Dec 9 Kingdom of Dreams & Madness

Last Wednesday I saw the documentary, The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness. It is about Hayao Miyazaki and the completion of his final film "The Wind Rises" What I really appreciate about the movie was the fact that I felt as if I was getting a pretty genuine glimpse and a better understanding of Miyazaki. As much as I love his animated features, I surprisingly have a limited knowledge of Miyazaki himself. Seeing his daily routine, from arriving at work, stretching with the staff and taking a break on the roof, I got a real sense of how important maintaining a balanced life is to him.

During the film Miyazaki speaks about the animation industry and about the future of Studio Ghibli. Everyone who spoke was reasonably candid about working at Studio Ghibli and with Miyazaki. Sometimes with documentaries like this, artists would do so much praising that it seems disingenuous. That was not the case here. He was not bashed by his employees but you can tell they understand that he is human, though a very important one.

Overall The Kingdom Of Dreams & Madness is extremely poetic from its narration to its visuals. It has encouraged me to seek out some of his productions that I was not previously aware of and even to watch some of the films of the directors that were also mentioned created.

I will close out this post with a quote by Miyazaki that resonated with me as I continue to seek out employment in the animation industry.

Only those who choose the right people to work with will do the work they want.